Past tense of shorten; made shorter in length, duration, or extent.
From Old English 'sceort' meaning brief or lacking in length, with the '-en' suffix added to create the verb form. The past participle form emerged in Middle English.
In cooking, 'shortening' refers to fats that make pastry 'short' or crumbly - the term comes from the way these fats interrupt gluten formation, literally shortening the protein strands. This culinary usage predates many modern meanings of the word.
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